Matt Damon Straps On His Armor In Latest Clip From Elysium

This year's summer season was kicked off by a hero in a metallic suit of armor, as Robert Downey Jr. once again strapped on his superhero uniform to reprise his role as Tony Stark in Iron Man 3, and it will be starting to come to a close in a similar fashion with Matt Damon in Elysium. The major difference between the two protagonists, however, is that while the former can put his armor on whenever he wants, the latter has to go through a painful surgery and have the metal actually grafted to his body. And today, thanks to the clip above released by IGN, we now know have a better idea of how rough that experience really is.

This clip does an effective job of establishing the the exoskeleton suit that Damon's character wears and even does a solid job of showing off some of the key supporting cast members, but at the same time it's kind of an odd clip to showcase all by itself. We've gotten a taste of what the armor can do from the trailers, and we know that the movie is going to feature plenty of action, so why not feature those scenes in a standalone clip? I suppose at the very least it will be cooler to see the movie's larger set pieces play out for the first time on the big screen.

In the movie, Damon stars as Max De Costa, an ex-con/factory worker living in a future where society has been completely divided by class. While the poor and middle classes try to survive on what's left of the planet's resources, the rich people of the world have all moved to Elysium, a space station where all crime, sickness and violence has been eliminated. When Max is involved in an accident at work, however, he is left poisoned and with only a few days to live. The only way for him to survive is to somehow get to Elysium - a mission that he tries to accomplish with the help of some friends from his former life of crime and an exoskeleton suit that gives him extraordinary strength to compensate for his weakened state. Jodie Foster co-stars as Secretary Rhodes, the principal antagonist who lives up on Elysium, while the stellar supporting cast includes William Fichtner, Sharlto Copley, Alice Braga, Diego Luna and Wagner Moura.

Sony Pictures will release Elysium in theaters nationwide next week on August 9th, and you can catch the movie's full trailer below.